Starbucks: Shut Up, I'm Recording The Celtics Game!

In the era of sports Tivoing, Starbucks baristas are powerless to avoid having the game ruined by thoughtless, chatty customers… or are they? Apparently, one Boston-area barista is fighting back. Do think this worked?

The sign reads:

Customers,

Please try not to talk about the Celtics game. I am recording it and watching it when I get home tonight. I would really prefer to not know the outcome ahead of time.

There is no way I would post a sign like this if I worked there, because someone is going to ruin it, either because they like making trouble, because they disagree with the sign on principle, or because they’re one of those people who doesn’t read anything.

I respect the wishes of the person who posted the sign, after all, everyone is human and if I’m in there it’s just to get some damn coffee, but I lay good odds that the cat got let out of the bag quickly.

It wouldn’t matter anyway because 95% of the people that walk in the door won’t read the sign anyway.

I know this because I worked at a gas station for a while and on really windy days we would have to put a ‘USE OTHER DOOR’ sign on one of the doors. I would laugh every time someone tried to use the locked door and I would laugh even harder when they tried to use the same door on the way out.

So what? Appease him. Its a polite note and a friendly request from a fellow person in society. It has nothing to do with Starbucks – except that its a personal note placed in his corporate environment.

I have two co-workers that record tennis matches and go home and watch them. I see the headlines blown up on CNN and Drudge – but I don’t mouth off Andy Roddick’s latest serve to them.

Sure you could go blow it for them out of spite for treating their Starbucks retail position in a controlling haughty manner – but why be a dick?

@Bladefist: Well, you COULD watch sportscenter for the highlights, assuming the team you cared about was based in Boston, New York, or Los Angeles. Otherwise, the 40 seconds the use to cover the rest of America is less than satisfying.

Playoff season is worse than xmas. In Detroit the stores are dead and the only people shopping are trying to get away while we employees have to be tortured by not watching the game and getting phone calls at the end of every quarter. I would gladly work all the major holidays so the store could be closed on playoff nights. Thank god for west coast games.

@SkokieGuy: Except it seems highly unlikely that the barista either created the Starbucks lingo OR cares to enforce it.

He does (hopefully) care that he gets you what you actually wanted when you said “Large black coffee” instead of ordering based on what the menu says. You’re not sticking it to Big Coffee when you do this, you are just making it harder for the guy who is just trying to do his job.

The difference is a book is a book with a ton of words that all have meanings and submeanings and is why I reread books. If you really like sports you would be interested in seeing the moves and not care if you knew the outcome just like I generally know that a Mary Higgen Clark books is not gonna end with the main character dead.

But we also have to understand hobbies and that to some people get worked up over a game and as thoe points progresses is their way of relaxing… But in reality get over yourself, you DO NOT have a right to tell people they can’t talk about X in your store, especially a coffee place where generally people will go for a coffee so that they can TALK.

@SkokieGuy: When you go to a resturant do you order what the menu says or do you tell the owner to change the wording to something different to suit you? Starbucks partners try to educate their customers on how to order so that the customer doesn’t feel intimidated by the menu.If you have ever been to a coffeehouse in Italy (which is where the Starbucks CEO spent time before he bought the company)you would see the same wording.At least Starbucks cares enough to try to educate their customers.DD’s commercials imply that they think their customers are too stupid to learn the word “Venti”.

Wow, I can’t believe the level of hostility that is directed to this guy or gal. The person is making a simple request, which, judging by some of the responses, I’m sure someone was more than willing to be a d*ck about and blurt it out. It’s not like he or she was asking to see your receipt on the way out. C’mon, people, this isn’t corporate censorship or a slippery slope. Get over yourselves. I, as a fellow sports nut, would honor this request. Go Lakers!

Another example of someone not knowing that the world doesn’t revolve around them or what they like. I would have been one of the spoilers. Not that sports or sport fans matter much to me anyways. How people put that much enthusiasm into merely a game when they could put it toward something meaningful in life always amazes me.

It’s completely inappropriate for a store employee to request that the customers inconvenience themselves for his or her sake no matter how politely they do so…@FrugalFreak is right on the money. If I were to come across a sign like that I’d simply take my business elsewhere. (After taking a photo and sending it to SB corporate.)

I think we’ve all been in a position where we asked our coworkers, friends or family not to spoil a movie or show for us. But to ask the entire public not to talk about something just for you is way over the top. I personally would not appreciate some stranger walking up to me, or putting up a note, asking me not to talk in earshot of him. And if it was an establishment making the request (or an employee acting on its behalf as in this case), it would certainly put a bad taste in my mouth regarding future visits to that particular establishment.

Starbucks is not this employee’s personal livingroom where he can dictate (or request) what people should or should not converse about, regardless of how innocent or harmless the request may be.

On the one hand, I sympathize with the writer and his/her intent. I even let out a little “aww”. Out loud. Really.

On the other hand, what about the customers who wanted to hang out and talk about whatever strikes their fancy? They, being decent folk, should now feel pressured to censor their discussions in a public meeting place? Sorry. Starbucks is a business and people should feel free to have all sorts of typical conversations.

On the third (yes, the third hand): whatever you do, don’t think about flat basketballs. Don’t do it! No flat basketballs. Now, what was it you wanted to talk about?

boy! an employee has some serious balls to put up a sign like this towards customers!

In the average workplace this would get you written up(or at least bitched at) by the boss in a heartbeat!

Sorry but in the service industries (like serving coffee to people), you just dont make trivial requests of your customers like this.

I gotta deal with similar things like this when i tape a particular TV show I like. But I just deal with the accidental spoilers like you are supposed to. I would NEVER tell/request a customer to not talk about something.

BTW…. I’d ruin it for him just because he had the balls to ask me not to talk about it. And just because people are such fanatics about sports.

@TheManator: Why? I think the sign is in poor taste and pretty unprofessional, but would it make you happy to ruin it for him?

I have several TV shows that I like to watch, but I am not home when they are on, so I record them. I have a coworker who knows this – and delights in coming in and spoiling the endings for me. He even admits he doesn’t really watch the shows, he just thinks it’s funny to ruin the endings for me.

Unfortunately, the sales clerks (“baristas”) at Starbucks seem to think they’re entitled to dictate the customer’s experience — you must order this way or we complain that you’re stupid, you must tip or we’ll spit in your drink (both documented on a well-known SBX gossip site) . . . and now, you may only discuss specific, approved topics.

Somehow, I’m not surprised their business is off and stock prices are in the terlet.

I was in this same boat for the past 4 years when I lived in LA and tried to follow Buffalo Sabres hockey by recording it while I was at work and watching it when I got home later. It worked fine at first, but then when we started making national television appearances that all went out the door…

finally, someone who understands! the fact that this sign makes perfect sense to people from boston is what makes me miss my hometown so much (relocated for grad school). putting up this kind of sign is absolutely NOT rude, and if people who go into the store are offended, chances are high that:

1. they are not from boston nor massachusetts;

2. they need to pull the wrench out of their @$$;

3. they are mentally ill;

4. THEY are the ones who are self-centered. yeah, you heard me right.

since i’m not in my car to end this post on a boston high note (aka a long, hard BEEP): eff the haters!!

It doesn’t surprise me that this is a Boston area Starbucks. I travel all over the country and found that, for the most part, the Starbucks folks were somewhat friendly.

My wife and I used to spend an average of $300/month at Starbucks, mostly at the local branch in Peabody. After being called on the carpet by the store manager for allegedly making an off-color comment to one of the baristas, and subsequently getting ignored all the way up the corporate ladder when I tried to persue the matter to confront the allegation, they can tuck their $3600/year. No small wonder that they’re down 22% in sales.

Oh yeah, the comment was an apology for making the barista wait while I was fumbling to get coins out of my pocket. “Its tough to get change out of (the pocket of) tight jeans”. The jeans were my own.

I love all the angry gnomes saying both “I’d ruin it for him” and “I don’t follow sports anyway!” It’s clearly a game going on while people are in the store or just ended recently. Those gnomes don’t know what happened anyway. The people who do know are fans and probably are just happy to meet a barista who is also a fan. They won’t ruin it for him.

So, for those of you who think it’s OK to request that customers not talk about the game, what if the topic he didn’t like were children? Could he ask you not to talk about children – your children, having children, something some child did – while in the store? What if it were sports in general? What if it were politics? These are all things I don’t want to hear about in the work place, but it would be grossly inappropriate for me to even just request of my customers that they not discuss these things. That’s precisely what customer service is about – putting the needs of the customer ahead of my own.

Back in 2001 when the Red Sox were playing the Yankees in Game 7 of the ALCS, my brother and I decided that even though we are die hard Sox fans, we decided that we would purposely NOT watch the game because of all the suffering in the past (Bucky Dent, Bill Buckner)and we didn’t want to be heart broken again. We went to a Barnes and Nobles at 8:00 and quietly read and shopped for books. We decided to get a coffee at the instore Starbucks and while in line a huge roar went up in the back room! Johnny Damon had just hit a grand slam and all the employee were in the back room watching it on portable black and white TV! Boston fans and baristas are very passionate about their sports, and the Sox went on to win their first world series a few days later.

I think there’s a huge difference between “don’t talk about a topic I don’t like” and “Please let me watch a specific event without spoilers”. I’ve found that I get better customer service by being a good customer than by assuming I’m the most important person in the world because I’m buying a $2 cup of coffee.

I do not have cable, and as such have to wait until somebody uploads the latest episode of ANTM onto Surf the Channel. Now while I hope to God that bitch Whitney gets sent home, I would prefer it if you did not reveal who was eliminated thise week.

Dear Starbucks customer: I may be the one getting paid out of the two of us right now, but do not inconvenience me with your talk of sports or any other topic of interest to you. You must command to my conveniences or else I’ll piss in your vanilla caramel macchiato.

Also, in all of these stories that have been written about it, I have read a lot of negative comments saying that I was rude to customers and that I should be punished. I would just like to point out that I talk sports with our regular customers everyday, so this was not suprising to them. And, many of them thought it was funny. It actually got a lot of customers who usually are pretty reserved talking and joking with us. It wasn’t taken as a hostile sign at all. In fact, there are many customers that I interact more now because of that day.

I cannot believe that so many people, here and elsewhere, feel like they need to ruin someone’s day just because he works behind a counter. Too many times with this site, as soon as someone puts on a literal or figurative employee hat, he is no longer human. Why do we not feel the need to treat people with respect just because we are paying them for something? If they are jerks to you first, by all means, go to town. But if they make a request to simply delay talking about something, is that so much to ask? Is that really a huge sacrifice? Too much of a sacrifice to ruin someone’s day over?

I’m happy that it worked out for you! There are some truly spiteful and rude people on this board who would spoil a game for their own personal amusement.

To those who say the sign itself was rude: get over yourselves! It’s up to the customer to decide whether or not to comply with a polite request (which is a far cry from a mandate). That’s why the title of this post is misleading (PLEASE and SHUT UP! are two entirely different things).

To those who say it’s just a game: would it have been any different if someone tells you not to ruin the ending to a book? Do you think that people who like sports are beneath those who enjoy literature? What about people who like both? Grow up and act your age.